#631 - Steve Barber

This final card thing just keeps going and we’re not done yet. Here Steve Barber shows his game face on a field of which I am shamefully unaware (those blue girders look right for The Met but I don’t believe that stadium had an overhang. County Stadium?). Steve is air-brushed into his Brewers cap. He was one of the many guys on the other side of the Ollie Brown trade from a few posts back, and like Ollie, Steve never played an inning for his new team. After a decent year out of the pen for California in which he added four saves to his stats, Steve went – sort of – back to Milwaukee in that huge trade from which just about every other participant also has a non-Traded traded card in this set. But he got released during spring training and would later in the year hook-up with San Francisco in his last MLB run. Steve was an original Pilot – hence the sort of above – which means he got some print in “Ball Four” which I will get to below. Here he looks awfully non-commital or maybe sedated. All that moving around late in his career probably made him feel that way.

Steve Barber grew up in Maryland, not terribly far from the freshly-relocated St. Louis Browns, who would sign him as one of the first new Orioles in ’57. Steve had just finished high school during which he twice led his team to a bi-county championship and didn’t lose at all his senior year. He had a big fastball but was pretty wild and that whole one-pitch thing didn’t work too well in the minors. While he averaged a strikeout an inning he also averaged nearly a walk an inning and his first two seasons he went a combined 15-21 with an ERA over 5.00 as he couldn’t get above C ball. But he also gradually picked up a curve and in ’59 calmed down – a bit – in D ball when he went 7-11 with a 3.85 ERA and 172 K’s with 143 walks in his 159 innings. His curveball improved considerably that year and in ’60 it would help him make the improbable jump all the way to Baltimore.

Barber had a bang-up spring in ’60 and made the Orioles staff out of training camp. He started in the pen where he got a couple saves and then moved into the rotation where he had a real nice rookie year where he came in sixth in the AL with his ERA. Control was still an issue as he led the AL in walks (113) and wild pitches (10). He also officially joined the Orioles’ “Kiddie Corps”, a group of four young pitchers that also included Chuck Estrada, Jack Fisher, and Milt Pappas. Those guys would go on to various degrees of success but their first year together they went a combined 55-40 at an average age of 21 and seemed primed to lead the O’s out of the horrid history the team inherited from its Browns days. In ‘61 Steve did his part in cementing the Corps’ legacy by winning 18 and leading the AL with eight shutouts (the Corps overall went 56-43) as Baltimore made a big run for the pennant with its 95 wins. Things got pretty frustrating for everyone in ’62 when Steve had to do his Army hitch and could only pitch on weekend leaves the first half of the season and then missed a month-plus with a trip to the DL. His record literally halved though he pitched quite well, the Corps dropped big to 37-42, and Baltimore had a losing record. But he followed that up with a big ’63 in which he became Baltimore’s first 20-game winner, again finshed in the top ten in AL ERA, and made his first All-Star team. By then the Kiddie Corps was blown up as Fisher had been traded and Estrada had only a partial season in Baltimore, though the remnant had its best record of 39-24. In ’64 his first significant tendinitis struck and Steve missed a month through early June and never really got into a good groove in his first sub-par season. ’65 began as only a partial improvement and by the end of June Steve was 5-6 with a 3.72 ERA. But the rest of the way he went 10-4 with a 2.24 ERA in the best run of his career to salvage another nice year. Then in ’66 he was on another good run when the tendinitis nailed him again and he missed all but five games in the second half. He couldn’t even pitch in the All-Star game to which he was selected and he got shut out of any Series action. By ’67 the elbow pain was pretty devastating and after a not great start that year Steve went to the Yankees in July for infielder Ray Barker, a couple minor leaguers (one with the great name of Chet Trail), and cash. Steve pretty much matched his early season numbers with his new team as combined he recorded his worst MLB season. In ’68 he posted pretty good numbers in a spot role after some Triple A time before going to the new Seattle Pilots that winter in the expansion draft.

With Seattle Barber was sort of a legacy guy because of his big seasons with the Birds so he was going to get a real shot at the rotation. But his arm was a mess and he had a couple stints on the DL and some more in the pen in what was a pretty nasty season. He was released the following spring and hooked up with the Cubs. He threw real well in four Triple A starts – 1-1 with a 1.55 ERA – but poorly up top and by May was on the road again, this time to Atlanta. For the Braves, Steve turned the same trick, going 7-1 with a 3.36 ERA in ten Triple A starts while being below average in his MLB work. In ’71 his ERA remained high though he stayed in Atlanta the whole year and recorded a couple saves in his pen work. After an abortive beginning to ’72 he was cut and signed with California as a free agent. Back in the AL Steve recorded a good little season with an excellent ERA and another couple saves. After the trade here he was cut again by the Brewers in camp and then signed with the Giants. After some iffy Triple A work he came up to throw a few innings that summer in his final MLB work. He then pitched in Triple A for the Cardinals that August and was done. He finished 121-106 with a 3.36 ERA with 59 complete games, 21 shutouts, and 13 saves.

After playing Steve remained in Arizona where he established a business installing stereos in cars and trucks. In ’78 he relocated to Nevada where he became a fleet manager for a company that rehabilitated cars which he did through ’91. He then became a bus driver for a local school that worked with handicapped kids. He was still doing that when he passed away in 2007. He was 68.

Steve’s signature differs a bit from his given name. I guess his hobby led pretty naturally to what he did after playing. In ’67 Steve threw all but one out of a no-hitter that he lost 2-1. In the game he gave up ten walks and hit two guys. In “Ball Four” Steve comes across as nearly a tragic figure. Jim Bouton said that all those years of throwing a curve permanently disfigured Steve’s left arm and that it was noticeably shorter than his right one. In nearly every scene in which Steve participates he is in a whirlpool bath or the diathermy machine. His price in the draft was pretty steep at $175,000 and at some point he earns Bouton’s resentment because he was asked to go to the minors while doing rehab and refused, which theoretically disallowed another pitcher coming up and may have contributed to Bouton’s stay in the minors that season.

By this point Watergate was all about the tapes, the tapes, the tapes...

10/10/73 – Spiro T. Agnew resigns as Vice President as part of a plea deal with the Justice Department. As it was becoming evident that Agnew would be found guilty of accepting bribes – unrelated to Watergate – he was offered a deal that he could plead guilty only to under-reporting his income by $29,500 in ’67 if he also stepped down as Vice President, which he accepted. In the wake of that departure President Nixon nominated House Minority Leader Gerald Ford to replace Agnew.

10/19/73 – After months of haggling over the tapes made by the system installed by President Nixon in the White House, Nixon and the Senate Committee reached an apparent agreement. Senator John Stennis, a democrat from Mississippi would be allowed to review requested tapes and then prepare summaries of those tapes to the Committee and the Special Prosecutor. It was unclear whether Nixon would or would not have final say over the selected tapes. While the Committee agreed to the deal, Special Prosecutor Cox did not and issued a statement that afternoon that he still demanded the tapes.

This hook-up gets done through the AL:

1. Barber and Jerry Adair ’60 to ’65 Orioles;

2. Adair and Tommie Agee ’66 to ’67 White Sox.

#630 - Tommie Agee

Back to the final cards, and in this case the plural works two ways. For the record of the last eight non-team cards in this set, six have been the final ones issued during those players’ careers. And Tommie Agee gets to go out with a double, just like Felipe Alou did a bunch of posts back. These aren’t great cards – Tommie looks pretty unhappy as a Cardinal and that look up on his Traded card could be years old. But he did have some great ones. In ’71 he slides into second as Joe Morgan and (I think) Dennis Menke try to get a ball that appears trapped in Tommie’s underarm while the umpire – in a uniform out of 1920 – looks like he’s about to signal an out, which would make no sense. I think that one gets topped in ’73 when Tommie is making a catch in center with Rusty Staub – our last post subject – jogging over from right and (again, I believe) Ken Boswell doing a crossover in back of another ump in a photo in which all three guys – a record? – had to be air-brushed because Tommie went to Houston before that season. He’d been having a rough time since about mid-’71 when extensive knee pain took away lots of his power and a year later his speed. And though he spent less than half his career in a Mets uniform, it is odd to see him out of it. His last year really was his last year – no more stats after the ones on this card – and after the trade mentioned above sort of fell flat. Despite hitting well in a couple early starts in left field for Houston, the dereliction of his knees contributed to most of his time being spent in reserve work where it was difficult to maintain a consistent average and the strikeouts- Tommie always had a problem with those – were a bit high for the decreased power production. By mid-August he was the team’s fifth outfielder and was soon after traded to St. Louis for infielder Dave Campbell. With the Cards Tommie got some starts in center – he was acquired because regular guys Jose Cruz and Luis Melendez were hurt and stopped hitting, repectively – but the average continued to taper. After the season the Dodgers got super busy in early December with trades. Their long-time starter in center, Willie Davis, was sent to Montreal for big-inning reliever Mike Marshall and Tommie was acquired in this trade to fill the gap. But the next day his former teammate Jimmy Wynn was picked up by LA for pitcher Claude Osteen. Jimmy would have a monster season in helping LA to the Series while Tommie wouldn’t get out of spring training. So he returned to NY, just not as a baseball player.

Tommie Agee grew up in and around Mobile, Alabama, where in high school he was a star in the big three sports plus track. In football while he was a three-year starter his team lost only one game. He was an end while future Mets teammate Cleon Jones was a halfback. In baseball he was an outfielder/pitcher and his senior year of ’60 he hit .390. He then went to Grambling on a baseball scholarship where he added first base to the above positions and hit .533 his one season before being signed by Cleveland for a big bonus. In D ball the rest of the summer he hit .261 with 15 homers and 40 RBI’s in under half a season. Tommie almost always hit from the top of the line-up and was super fast. In ’62 he moved up to B ball where he put up a .258/7/55 line with ten triples and 25 stolen bases before a couple games in Triple A and then his first look in Cleveland. In ’63 he moved to Double A where he experienced his first lost time from his knee, had a line of .274/5/36 in just under 300 at bats, stole 19, and recorded his best OBA of .354. He also returned to Cleveland at the end of the season for look number two. Then in ’64 it was off to Triple A Portland where he became a slugger with his .272/20/62 line with 35 steals but 144 K’s. After his third late crack at the Cleveland outfield he, young pitcher Tommy John, and John Romano went to the White Sox as part of a three-team deal in which Cam Carreon went to Cleveland (from Chicago); Mike Hershberger, Jim Landis, and Fred Talbot went to KC (from Chicago); and Rocky Colavito returned to Cleveland (from KC).

Initially, Chicago smelled a lot like Cleveland for Agee. He began the season in Triple A, where his .226/8/33 line was a significant discount to his prior season and his September call-up worked about as well as his previous ones did. But in ’66 Tommie had a real good camp and in the wake of Danny Cater’s trade to KC, incumbent center fielder Ken Berry moved to Cater’s spot in left opening up center for Tommie, who made the most of his opportunity. Still a rookie, he led the Sox in runs (98), hits, doubles, triples, homers, RBI’s, average, and stolen bases (44). He made the All-Star team, won a Gold Glove, and finally was named AL Rookie of the Year. ’67 would be a mixed year though. While Tommie hit OK during the season’s first half and again was an All-Star, he had a nasty slump in the second half which was pretty lousy timing since the Sox went to the wire on the pennant. After the season he was on the move again, this time to the Mets with infielder Al Weiss for Tommy Davis, Jack Fisher, and a couple minor leaguers.

While Agee’s first year in a new town was better than the last time he tried that trick, it wasn’t by much. Acquired to finally fill a defensive hole in center that had been there since pretty much the Mets themselves had, and to add some pop to the top of the line-up, Tommie did pretty well in the former department but pretty badly in the latter. Off to a pretty good start at the plate he ran into an early wall in that monster 24-inning game against Houston in which he went 0 for 10 to begin a season-long slump that didn’t allow him to break .200 until the last couple weeks. He went from being the everyday center fielder to missing starts and his RBI total was pretty horrendous as he came in with north of 100 strikeouts. But ’69 was a whole new year and Tommie put up his best stats since his ROY season. While he was still toting a high K total – 137 that year – he delivered in the role for which he was acquired while scoring 97 runs. Then came his headline-worthy post-season in which he hit .357 with two homers against Atlanta and then had those two circus catches against Baltimore that saved a game in the Series. As another reward Tommie was named the AL Comeback Player of the Year. ’70 was better for Tommie personally as he improved in runs (107), hits, doubles, triples, stolen bases (31 vs. 12), and average and won his second Gold Glove. By the end of the year, though, his knees were causing him some serious pain and in ’71 Tommie missed a combined six weeks to injury. He kept his average up there and stole 28 bases but his power subsided quite a bit. In ’72 he missed time to both injury and the return of Willie Mays as that year the average and the stolen base total (8) fell prey to his knees. Following the season he was sent to Houston for Rich Chiles and Buddy Harris. After the ’73 season he was done, finishing with the stats on the back of this card and 167 stolen bases. In the post-season he hit .250 with three homers, five RBI’s, and three steals in his eight games.

Agee had while still a Met purchased an interest in The Outfield Lounge, a bar pretty close to Shea Stadium in Queens. After he was done playing he pretty much took it over as a full-time pursuit. He was also heavily involved in local PR events for the Mets and other NYC youth programs. He then became associated with a company called Stewart Title Insurance with whom he was working while attending a meeting in NYC in 2001. It was there he was stricken with a heart attack that would prove fatal. Tommie was only 58. A year later he was inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame. He has a SABR bio.

Tommie gets a big number and a big star bullet on his card back. Those catches robbed Andy Etchebarren and Paul Blair (who just recently passed away) of multi-base hits that would have likely driven in five runs. When he was traded to the Sox it was part of an arranged deal. The Tribe wanted Rocky Colavito back and he was in the hands of the A’s. Chicago wanted catcher John Romano because he hit with some power although his defense was very suspect. Cleveland told Chicago they could get Romano if they picked up Colavito which they were able to do principally because he’d had a big ’64 and wanted a raise and KC owner Charlie O Finley didn’t want to pay. So Cleveland got Rocky, Chicago got Romano, and the two throw-ins to the deal from the Cleveland side were Tommie – whose stats are all above – and a guy who won 286 more games.

Tommie had a one-day run as LA’s newest center fielder. Ah well.

By mid-August of ’73 most of the big names had already testified before the Senate Committee, which was still pursuing some of the tapes from the White House:

8/15/73 – President Nixon delivers a televised address for the first time in three months. In it he indicated it was time to stop using Watergate as a diversion and/or an obstacle to getting real work done, notably dealing with inflation and Viet Nam. He opined that “it (was) clear that both the hearings themselves and some of the commentaries on them have become increasingly absorbed in an effort to implicate the President personally in the illegal activities that took place” in another clear indication of his belief of myriad conspiracies against him. He reminded people that he already accepted responsibility for abuses that occurred during his administration but then also reminded everyone that he was innocent of all activities related to the scandal. He reiterated that he would not turn in any tapes on the basis of national security. The presentation didn’t go terribly well; the next day a poll revealed that 31% of the populace were in favor of the President’s job performance, a 20-year low in that poll.

As that ’73 card of Tommie’s illustrated, this is an easy hook-up:

1. Agee and Rusty Staub ’72 Mets.

#629 - Rusty Staub

As a welcome back to the land of baseball cards, Rusty Staub gets a rather odd action shot at Shea. Rusty had some contractual differences with Topps that left him without cards in the ’72 or ’73 set, though he does make at least one appearance in the latter set jogging towards center on Tommie Agee’s card as Agee makes a catch (more on that card on the next post).  Here, Rusty looks like he is conversing with someone to his left – the catcher maybe – while just about every fan’s focus appears to be on something in the outfield. Rusty was in the midst of his second season in NY, having come over from Montreal in a big trade prior to what would be a bit of a train wreck for him in the ’72 season. Then, like a lot of his teammates, ’73 was sort of a mixed season for him. Early on, Rusty got nailed in the hand by a pitch which made it pretty tough for him to grip a bat the balance of the season. Because of the plethora of injuries suffered by just about every other starter he never went on the DL and the injury contributed to discounted power from his recent full seasons. But he was still the team’s biggest power threat and he came up big in the post-season with three homers – his only hits – and five RBI’s in the playoffs and a .423 average with six RBI’s in the near-upset of Oakland in the Series. And even with the injury it was better than the prior year. So if Rusty is smiling here as I suspect, he had reason to.

Rusty Staub grew up in New Orleans, which seems about right given what he did in his off-seasons. In high school there he played basketball and baseball. His senior year he hit .474 and homered to win the state championship. The prior summer he led his team to the American Legion world series and the summer after his senior year he hit .553 for that team. That summer was ’61 and when Legion play ended Rusty was signed by Houston to a bonus baby contract. He had a big first year in B ball, putting up a line of .293/23/93 with 115 runs and a .429 OBA while playing first base. Houston then elevated him all the way up and that year he split time between – primarily – first and right field. His numbers weren’t crazy impressive but he put up more walks than strikeouts and earned a spot on the Topps Rookie team. He remained in Houston to start the ’64 season but after struggling offensively returned to the minors, where in Triple A he put up a line of .314/20/45 with a .427 OBA in just 226 at bats, so there was nothing left for him to prove at that level.  When he returned in ’65 he was moved to right field as his primary spot, put up his first double digit homer tally, and added 40 points to his average. In ’66 he added another 25 points to his average, got into slugger territory with his RBI total, and put in some time in left. In ’67 he put up the best average of his career while leading the NL in doubles and in ’68 he hung in there offensively in a tough year to do that while playing only first base again. In both ’67 and ’68 he was an All-Star. Early the next year he was sent to the new Montreal Expos for Jesus Alou and Donn Clendenon in a deal that was almost derailed because Clendednon refused to report (he did not want to play again for Houston manager Harry Walker). The deal got fixed when the Expos subbed Jack Billingham, Skip Guinn, and $100,000 for Clendenon.

With Montreal Staub became a fan favorite. Named “Le Grande Orange” by the Canadians for his red hair, he endeared himself to the fans up north by responding to them in French when he was asked for autographs. He wasn’t too shy with the bat either. In ’69 he jumped on the homer train as he put up a .426 OBA. In ’70 he hit the 30 homer mark the only time in his career and in ’71 he nearly had triple figures in both runs and RBI’s. He’d also become an excellent right fielder and he and first baseman Ron Fairly made a very good right side defensive duo even though they were probably the two slowest guys in the league. All three years Rusty was an All-Star as his OBA during his initial time with the Expos topped .400. Then, just before the start of the ’72 season he was part of another big trade in which he went to NY for three guys who would turn into immediate starters for Montreal: Tim Foli, Mike Jorgensen, and Ken Singleton. His first year with the Mets was going great guns: in mid-June he was hitting over .300 and NY was in first place. Then he got hit in the hand by a George Stone pitch. He would continue to play for over a week but it would turn out that his hand was broken and he would miss the first significant amount of time in his career in seeing his season halved. After his dramatic comeback season in ’73 he put up a .258/19/78 line for a crappy ’74 club and then in ’75 improved to .282/19/105 as he set a team record for RBI’s. As a reward he was on the road again, this time to Detroit in a horribly-balanced trade which got the Mets Mickey Lolich, who was well past his prime.

With Detroit Staub returned to the All-Star game in ’76 as the starting AL right fielder as he went on to post a .299/15/96 line for his first shot in the new league. He then became a full-time DH as well as an RBI machine the next two seasons as he put up stats of .278/22/101 and .273/24/121 respectively. But Rusty did not want to DH and in ’79 he held out in spring training and didn’t get into the line-up until early May. He started off well enough and his power stats were pretty much in line with where they’d been the past few seasons, but his average slid to under .240 and he’d burned some bridges with the holdout so in July he was sent back to Montreal for cash and a minor leaguer. He was warmly received by his old fans and picked up his average by 30 points the rest of the way as he did some reserve work at first and in right. His return was short-lived, though, and after the season he went back to the AL to Texas for Chris Smith and LaRue Washington. With the Rangers he got off to another hot start - .412/2/9 through April – when he went down with an injury and missed the next month-plus. He finished with a .300/9/55 line in his 340 at bats and after the season signed as a free agent with the Mets. Back in NY he would spend the initial part of the ’81 season starting at first and then split starts there the rest of the way with fellow re-acquiree Dave Kingman. He also did some significant time as a pinch hitter and that year of his overall .317/5/21 line – on 161 at bats – his pinch stats were .300/0/6 with a .467 OBA. In ’82 he reversed things, getting most of his starts late in the season as his line slipped a bit to .242/3/27 but he showed more power in the pinch with a .211/1/13 in 57 at bats. By ’83 NY was getting more solid at Rusty’s field positions and from about mid-year on he was exclusively a pinch hitter. That year in that role he went .284/3/25 in his 81 at bats and .296/3/28 overall in 115 at bats. In ’84 he was .273/1/18 in just 66 pinch at bats and in ’85 .262/1/8 with a .404 OBA in 42 at bats in his final season. Rusty finished with a .279 average, 292 homers, 1,466 RBI’s, 2,726 hits, and a .363 OBA for his career. In his only post-season he hit .341 with four homers and eleven RBI’s in his eleven games. All-time he is in the top 100 in hits, doubles, total bases, walks, singles, and RBI’s. Defensively he is in the top 25 for right field assists, putouts, and double plays.

Staub kept busy before and after he was playing. While he was laid up in ’72 he refined a lot of the cooking skills he learned from his mom, preparing meals for teammates, and later cooking in some local restaurants. By ’77 he opened his own ribs place on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and he later added another one on Fifth Avenue. After playing he was a color announcer for over 20 seasons for NY and during that time he also established a fund that helped families of NYC police and fireman injured or killed in the line of duty. That fund exploded after 9/11 and raised over $125 million for affected families. He’s been an active community guy in NY as well and has been elected to the Louisiana, Mets, and Expos halls of fame.

 Almost all the info on the back of Rusty’s card has been covered above. He relocated from Houston to NY later during his Mets time and remained there a long time thereafter. In the NL playoffs in ’73 he nailed his shoulder slamming into the wall after making a catch of a long fly hit by Dan Driessen and had to throw underhand during the Series. It didn’t seem to hurt his hitting too much though.

In mid-summer of ’73 the existence of the White House taping system and the acquisition of the tapes by the Special Prosecutor and the Senate Committee were the main themes but news-wise they were a dead issue until the Supreme Court’s decision over their release. So most news now was tangential stuff:

7/21/73 – Around this time former Attorney General John Mitchell testified before the Committee. By the time of Mitchell’s testimony it had already been established that he’d been involved in both planning and covering up the Watergate and other break-ins so he was past denying his own involvement. So the recurring theme of Mitchell’s testimony – again in contrast to John Dean’s testimony – was labelled in the press the “see no evil, hear no evil, say no evil” thread. Mitchell claimed that he and others involved never told President Nixon of any White House involvement in the break-ins and subsequent actions so that he would have no knowledge of them and therefore be insulated from any political fallout. After his testimony, and with the lack of any definitive news regarding the tapes, negative public opinion regarding Nixon abated a bit. But then...

Early August ’73 – Vice-President Spiro T. Agnew became a big political liability for issues completely unrelated to Watergate. Agnew, who was never accused of any Watergate involvement nor was asked to testify, had built his recent reputation as a conservative populist bulldog who frequently baited the press and anyone else he deemed as liberal with alliterative characterizations like “nattering nabobs of negativism” and many references as being effeminate. Prior to joining the Nixon ticket in ’68 he was the Governor of Maryland and around this time investigations into accusations of bribe-taking by him while in that role from various contractors became high-profile. Those prosecuting the accusations ran a double thread against Agnew: that he accepted the bribes and that he failed to report income from them. While there was no association between the President and Agnew’s actions while governor, the revelations generally prevailed a “What’s next” attitude on the public regarding the administration.

So my general rule is 100 at-bats are necessary to “officially” make guys teammates. In this case those at bats took the latter player six years but he gets there:

 

1. Staub and Ivan Murrell ’63 to ’68 Colt .45’s/Astros.

#628 - Ivan Murrell

Just to shake things up, Topps offers us another final card, this one in the form of an action shot of Ivan Murrell at first base in what appears to be Jack Murphy Stadium (thanks Paul). He certainly could have had a card for ’75 since he put in a decent amount of time for Atlanta in ’74. Action cards are always a good way to go out and the ’73 season was as representative as any for Ivan’s career. Most of his early work was pinch hitting but he wasn’t cracking .200 in that role; he did that for a bit in some starts at first in early June while Nate Colbert was down. But then he faded again and was still around .180 when he got a bunch of starts in center in September and hit .304 for the month. His big problem offensively is reflected in his walk and strikeout totals for the season – two and 52, respectively - in his 210 at bats. Ivan was a big guy and therefore had a big strike zone but those numbers would make even Dave Kingman turn red. This photo is probably from a game during his September run so he gets to be memorialized from a happy time in his career. And that Padres yellow actually looks pretty good in profile.

Ivan Murrell was born in Panama and grew up in Costa Rica but would return to his home country from time to time. He must have been huge compared to the other kids in Costa Rica, which is probably why he picked up the nickname “Bull.” His dad was a big deal cricket player in Panama and Ivan returned there for high school where he played soccer, basketball, volleyball, and finally baseball his senior year. An amateur boxer and excellent soccer player, he was training for a career in either when he was spotted by a Houston scout and signed in ’63. He had a tough time that summer in A ball, hitting .221, but still made his Colt .45’s debut that September in one of those all-rookie games the team did to raise its profile. He didn’t hit much better his second A level stop in ’64 but he did add some power, posting a .220/10/51 line. In ’65 he hurt his knee during spring training, required surgery, and missed the whole season. He returned in ’66 to post his best A stats with a .253/12/63 line and finally seemed to be on a good roll when he followed that with a Triple A line in ’67 of .289/14/82 with eight triples and twelve stolen bases before returning to Houston where he hit well in his few games. In the minors that year he led all league outfielders in putouts. In ’68 he channeled his ’65 spring training experience by injuring his heel but made the Astros Opening Day roster anyway. That injury really impaired his stroke and that .102 average wasn’t getting him anywhere and so in early July after scant usage he was returned to Triple A where his numbers didn’t improve too much. At the end of the year he was selected by San Diego in the expansion draft.

In his initial year with the Padres Murrell settled into a fourth outfielder role, putting in most of his time in center behind Cito Gaston. While his D was spotty and his 65 strikeouts were pretty high, he was one of the team’s most consistent hitters. In ’70 he upped his at bats a bit by moving primarily to left as incumbent Al Ferrara was in phase-out mode and topped out in homers with twelve. But it was the same story with too many errors and too many K’s. So in ’71 when Ferrara was pretty much gone and Gaston went into his big swoon, instead of Ivan getting more plate time, he was leap-frogged on the depth chart by Larry Stahl and new guy Leron Lee. Again, Ivan put in most of his time in left and his fielding improved a bunch but in ’72 with Jerry Morales ready to be a regular and Johnny Jeter brought in as savior – that didn’t work – Ivan got returned to Triple A where he had a bang-up season, posting a .335/14/62 line while fielding well. After his return in ’73 he was taken off waivers by Atlanta right at the end of training camp in ’74 for whom he did first base and outfield work while hitting .248 with twelve RBI’s in 133 at bats. He finished his MLB time with a .236 average with 33 homers and 123 RBI’s. In his 1,372 plate appearances he walked only 44 times while striking out 342 times.

In ’75 Murrell put in nearly a full season of Triple A ball for Atlanta while playing nearly exclusively in the outfield and posting a line of .266/12/26 in just over 300 at bats. He then spent ’76 in the Mexican Leagues where he appears to have learned some plate discipline because when he returned to the San Diego system in ’77 he put up a .342/24/98 line with just 68 K’s in his 448 at bats. But those numbers weren’t enough to get him back so he returned to Mexico where he played for various teams through ’83. He then got into coaching and scouting, which he did for the San Diego, Oakland, Cleveland, and Mets organizations by the time he did a season of Senior League ball in ’89. He then relocated to St. Lucie full time to continue coaching for the Mets and then do so for some local high schools and colleges. He also was an ESL instructor at the schools and then got into individual coaching. Late in 2006 he was found to have stomach cancer from which he passed away two days after its discovery. He was 63.

That three-game run from the first star bullet was named specifically on Ivan's '72 card and occurred from May 30 to June 1 of '71. His big minor league stats from '72 make the second star bullet. Regarding the cartoon, he was supposedly selected for the Pan Am games of '63 for Panama's entry but opted to sign with Houston instead. As an amateur boxer he was also reportedly undefeated.

The big Watergate theme now is the White House taping system revealed in Alexander Butterfield’s testimony:

7/18/73 – Around this time it is believed that President Nixon ordered the taping system in his office be turned off, a couple days after Butterfield’s testimony. Both the Senate Committee and Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox requested samples of the recorded tapes but both were rebuffed.

7/23/73 – President Nixon sends the Senate Committee, in care of its chairman, Senator Sam Ervin, a letter in which he refuses to hand over any tapes requested by the committee. Both Ervin and vice-chairman Howard Baker express remorse at this decision, Ervin calling Watergate “the biggest tragedy ever suffered by this country.” Nixon indicated in his letter that the basis for his refusal was both the potential misinterpretation of statements made on the tapes regarding Watergate and its tangential activities and other sensitive topics of discussion not related to the scandal. At the same time a White House aide, Charles Alan Wright, sent Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox a letter denying him access to the tapes as well. Cox responded immediately with a subpoena seeking eight specific tapes. The matter was now in the hands of the Supreme Court.

7/24/73 – John Erlichman takes the stand in front of the Senate Committee for the first time. He defends his role in the break-in of the office of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist – a memo released earlier in June already established his involvement so he was past denying it – as necessary to protect national security. He also disputes many specifics of John Dean’s testimony the prior month. At this point though, at least publicly, pretty much every one of Dean’s assertions that has been able to be proven or disproven – particularly the existence of the taping system – has fallen under the prior category so Erlichman’s testimony is widely believed to be suspect.

The best way to get these two final card guys together is through the NL so here goes:

1. Murrell and Leron Lee ’71 to ’73 Padres;

2. Lee and Carl Taylor ’70 Cardinals.

#627 - Carl Taylor

Carl Taylor gets a standard pose for his final card in Oakland. This really is Carl’s final card, too, as he didn’t have one at bat at any level after his final one in ’73. That year was his second straight one of back-up work in KC and most of his work behind the plate came early and late in the season: May and September were his busiest months. That was because former starter Ed Kirkpatrick got moved to the outfield and new guy Fran Healy had a tough start early and then got hurt late. Carl wasn’t too bad of a hitter and he did a pretty good job at getting on base; his ’73 OBA of .363 was about his lifetime average. But he could never really capitalize on his fat average in ’69 and he settled in for a pretty decent run as a number two or three guy. He was versatile and could play infield and outfield as well as catch. But he didn’t make it out of spring training in ’74 and moved onto his next role pretty impressively. He better have a bitchin’ coiff under that hat because he probably could have used the advertising.

Carl Taylor was born in Sarasota, Florida, and got down to Key West by the time he was in high school. Prior to that he and his step-brother Boog Powell were on a hotshot Little League team that made it to their world series, but didn’t win. After a multi-sport career at Key West HS, Carl was signed by the Pirates in ’62 and that summer hit .246 with a .348 OBA in D ball. In ’63 he moved up to A ball where he became a bit of a slugger with a .295/11/58 line and continued to hit well at that level in ’64 with a .291 average and 54 RBI’s. He lost some points off his average the next year when he moved up to Double A but was back in line in ’66 with a .292 and in ’67 with a .293 at that level. By then he’d begun doing his military time and had also begun doing some outfield work. In ’68 he had a pretty good spring and made the Pirates Opening Day roster. While he got a smattering of work behind the plate mid-season he also pinch hit a bit and didn’t see too much plate time. That changed the next year when a hot run in the pinch to start the season got him some starting time at first base and the outfield corners – he got zero time behind the plate – and he put up a big .348 average and a .432 OBA while putting in a decent run as the second guy in the order. After the season St. Louis, desperate for some timely hitting, traded Dave Giusti and Dave Ricketts for Carl.

Unfortunately for the Cardinals and for Taylor, Carl didn’t bring his big average with him when he changed teams. Again used almost exclusively in the outfield and at first base, he spent a significant part of the spring trying to claw above .200 but from late June until the end of the year hit .272 to improve things a bunch and his 45 RBI’s weren’t too shabby. But the Cards weren’t crazy happy with how things rolled and shortly after the season they sent Carl to Milwaukee with infielder Jim Ellis for pitcher George Lauzerique and catcher Jerry McNertney. Carl didn’t even make it to spring training with the Brewers though, as he was sent to KC even up for fellow catcher Ellie Rodriguez. He would get a bit of work with the Royals that season but most of it was spent in Triple A where put up a .362 average and .470 OBA while again working primarily in the outfield. Late that season he was sold back to Pittsburgh for help during the stretch run but didn’t see too much action and got shut out of any post-season work. In ’72 he returned to KC in another sale and returned to catcher as he split the season between Triple A - .291 with a .399 OBA in 117 at bats – and up top as he backed up Kirkpatrick and Jerry May behind the plate. After continuing in that role strictly in Kansas City in ’73 he was done. Along with the stats on the back of this card, Carl put up an MLB OBA of .367 and one of nearly .400 in the minors, where he hit .291.

Soon after Taylor was done playing he opened his own hair salon back in Florida which he kept going for 17 years. Towards the end of that run he did some bullpen  work for the short-lived Senior Leagues and then signed on with the Yankees as a bullpen coach, sometimes barber, and eventually the team’s videographer, which he did from ’90 to ’97. He then did some local baseball clinic, school, and camp work before retiring a few years ago. He was always in the right place to do that.

Carl Means Taylor? I would have though that Carl meant Carl, but that’s just a bad joke. That last star bullet showcases the average that put Carl for a while in the Pirates starting line-up. I think Topps is a bit over the top in its characterization of Boog in the cartoon.

After a one-post delay, here’s some more Watergate timeline:

7/9/73 – Around this date two important things happened. One was that in the wake of John Dean’s testimony President Nixon, despite his statement in May that he would respect and cooperate in the Watergate investigation, announced that he would neither testify before nor provide any documentation to the Senate Watergate Committee. The second bit, which wouldn’t come out for a while, is that Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein initially learned of a scheme, authored by White House staff member Chuck Colson, to burglarize and/or firebomb the Brookings Institution, a DC-based think tank he believed may have been behind the leaking of sensitive information to the press in the ’70 to ’71 time-frame.

7/16/73 – John H.R. Haldeman’s deputy testifies before the Senate Committee, Alexander Butterfield was a former Air Force pilot who knew Haldeman from UCLA and was asked by his former classmate to join the White House staff in ’69. He was never believed to be part of the Watergate conspiracy and was never indicted. But he had intimate knowledge of the workings of the Nixon administration and when asked if he knew of an existing tape recording system he answered in the positive. He therefore confirmed John Dean’s suspicions and sent the Special Prosecutor and the Committee itself packing in a whole new direction to what would eventually be the smoking gun in the whole affair.

Taylor did double duty with Pittsburgh so this should be pretty easy:

1. Taylor and Richie Hebner ’68 to ’69 and ’71 Pirates;

2. Hebner was on the ’73 Pirates.

#626 - Pittsburgh Pirates/Pirates Team Records (part 2)

On the Pirates checklist front we get a significant part of what would be the team’s starting line-up in ’74. Two signatures here – Ken Brett’s and Jerry Reuss’s – belong to people not on the team in ’73. There is one Hall of Famer in Willie Stargell and one cusp guy in Al Oliver. There could have been another of those latter guys in Dave Parker but he didn’t make the cut. Manny Sanguillen seems to prefer the multi-level signature. On to the pitchers we go.

Pete Mikkelsen was born in Staten Island and is reported to have remained there through high school but he graduated from a school in Alhambra, California, the same town in which Ralph Kiner went to high school. So maybe Pete moved out there late in his high school career. Wherever he was he attracted the attention of the Yankees who signed him in ’58 out of school, sending him to D ball that summer. Pete didn’t do too great, going 0-4 with a high ERA and lots of walks as a reliever that summer. He was a big kid but his fastball and curve were sort of mediocre. In ’59 he went 9-9/4.44 as a spot guy in D ball and in ’60 improved to 13-10/4.43 in C ball. In ’61 he began his Marines reserve hitch and moved up to A ball where he went only 4-10 as a spot guy again but posted by far his best ERA with a 3.49. He also pitched well that year in a couple Double A games. In ’62 he hurt his shoulder and was unable to throw his big sinker any more so he modified it by developing a palmball he threw from shoulder height. He moved to the pen in A ball that year and between his injury and military duty his innings came down but he posted a 3-5 record with a 3.18 ERA and nearly a K an inning with his new pitch. In ’63 he refined it and finally stuck in Double A, going 11-6 with a 1.47 ERA as a reliever. After a good spring in ’64 he moved up to NY and became the ace of the pen with a 7-4 record, 3.56 ERA, and twelve saves. In the Series that year he gave up a grand slam to Tim McCarver but otherwise pitched well. In ’65 he fell to 4-9 in the big tumble with just one save but he lowered his ERA to 3.28. He then went to Pittsburgh for aging pitcher Bob Friend and had a big year, going 9-8/3.07 with 14 saves. In ’67 injuries and more reserve work sort of killed his season and after going just 1-2 with two saves and a 4.31 ERA he was taken by the Cubs off waivers. Pete’s time in Chicago was not productive and early in ’68 he went to St. Louis for whom he went to Triple A. There he sandwiched a nice 16-4/1.91 season in the rotation around a few good games up top in June. At the end of the year he went to the Dodgers for Jim Ellis and for LA he did his most consistent work, the next four seasons going a combined 24-17 with a 3.27 ERA and 20 saves. ’72 was his last year – his last Topps card was in ’68 – and he finished with a record of 45-40 with a 3.38 ERA, 49 saves, and went 0-1 with a 5.79 ERA in his four post-season games. He moved to a farm he’d purchased in Washington state after he finished as a player and worked the farm until he passed away in 2006 from cancer at age 67.

Vic Willis was covered on the Braves team card post.

Burleigh Grimes grew up in Wisconsin where by his early teens he was working at lumber mills and already throwing a spitter. He signed with a local D league team in 1912 when he was 18 and over the next year-plus went 10-6 at that level with a decent ERA and got purchased by the Tigers. Detroit then flipped him to an A league team for whom he went 6-7 the rest of the way. He then won 23 for a C team in ’14, and then 17 and 20 for an A team in ’15 and ’16, respectively, both years with super ERA’s. Late in ’16 he was purchased by Pittsburgh and he went 2-3 from mid-September on in the rotation. In ’17, though, he was only 3-16 with a high ERA and prior to the ’18 season he was sent to Brooklyn in a trade that brought the Pirates Casey Stengel. With the Dodgers/Robins Burleigh became a star, winning 19 games his first year while missing part of that season and nearly half of the next one for Naval duty. Ex that ’19 season he averaged 21 wins a year through ’24 wile leading the NL once in games, winning percentage, wins, and strikeouts, three times in complete games, and twice in innings pitched. In ’20 the spitter was outlawed but Burleigh was grandfathered in and allowed to continue throwing it the duration of his career. He could be pretty nasty on the mound and regularly threw at batters. After a nasty bad year in ’25 – 12-19 with a 5.04 ERA – and a not great season in ’26 he was sent to the Giants prior to the ’27 season in a three-team deal. With NY he bounced to win 19 with a better ERA. But he didn’t get along with John McGraw and in ’28 he was sent to Pittsburgh – Round 2 – for Vic Aldridge. That year Burleigh recorded his biggest season, going 25-14 with a 2.99 ERA while leading the NL in wins, starts, games, complete games, innings, and shutouts. After winning 17 in ’29 he wore out his welcome again and went to the Braves and then St. Louis for whom he won 13 in just over half a season in ’30, returning to the Series. He then won 17 for the Cards in ’31 before having an excellent Series, going 2-0 with a 2.04 ERA in his two starts. But he was then on the road again, going to the Cubs – for Hack Wilson, among others – back to St. Louis, back to NY, and finally back to Pittsburgh – Round 3 – where he finished things in ’34. Burleigh went 270-212 with a 3.53 ERA, 314 complete games, 35 shutouts, and 18 saves. In the post-season he was 3-4 with a 4.29 ERA in nine games. He could hit, posting a .248 regular season average with 168 RBI’s and a .316 Series average. After playing he turned to managing various minor league franchises: for St. Louis (’35-’36 and ’45-’46); Brooklyn (’39-’40); Pittsburgh (’42-’44); the Giants (’46-’48); and the Browns (’52-’53). In ’37 he managed the Dodgers for two seasons, replacing Stengel, and going 132-171 his only seasons up top. He missed the ’41 season after being banned for reportedly spitting in an umpire’s face. From ’48 to ’52 he was a scout for the Yankees. He also scouted for Kansas City (’54-’56) and Baltimore (’60-’71), his final gig in basball, retiring at age 77. He then returned to Wisconsin. Voted into the Hall in ’64, he passed away at home in ’85 when he was 92. He has a SABR bio.

Jack Chesbro has a bio on the Yankees team post.

Murry Dickson was born in Missouri and relocated to Leavenworth, KS, as a kid. He threw American Legion – check out his SABR bio for an interesting tidbit during that time – and semi-pro ball near home before he was signed by St. Louis in ’37 when he was 20. He had a couple choppy years in the minors his first two seasons but in ’39 won 22 in A ball  before making his short debut with the Cards in September and then in ’40 won 17 in Double A. In ’41 he won 21 in Double A and then made the St. Louis roster the following year. The next two years he worked as a spot guy, going a combined 14-5 with a 3.38 ERA and a couple saves for the NL champs. He then enlisted, initially playing service ball, but by mid-’44 he was on the front lines in Europe and saw lots of action. He returned to St. Louis in ’46 to post maybe his best season, going 15-6 with a 2.88 ERA and a save in his spot role. His starts picked up a bit the next couple years though he went a combined 25-32 before being traded to Pittsburgh following the ’48 season. With the Pirates he would generally put up good ERA’s but also losing records. His first two seasons he went a combined 22-29 but in ’51 became a full-time starter while going 20-16 for a team that won only 63 games. The next two years he led the NL in losses with 21 and 19, respectively. He then went to the Phillies prior to the ’54 season, again posted a better than league average ERA, and again led the NL with his 20 losses. He won twelve in ’55 and after a crappy start to the ’56 season went back to St. Louis where he went 13-8 after the trade. Prior to the ’57 season he hurt his shoulder and only got into 14 games, going 5-3. He then went to Kansas City, the Yankees and back to KC in ’59 where he finished things out of the pen at 42. Murry put up a 172-181 record with a 3.66 ERA, 149 complete games, 27 shutouts, and 23 saves. In five post-season games he went 0-1 with a 3.86 ERA while winning two rings. He, too, could hit, putting up a .231 regular season average, and a .400 post-season one. A union carpenter in off-seasons he took that on back in Leavenworth full-time after playing and passed away there in ’89 from emphysema. He was 73. 

Elroy Face was born in Stephentown, NY, not too far from Albany, and threw American Legion ball there in high school. When he graduated he went to the Army where he continued to pitch in service ball in Guam, and when he returned home also did the same for some local teams. A little guy, he never planned to play pro ball, but was spotted in a tournament by a Phillies scout in ’49, when he was 21. Signed that year he made an immediate impact, going a combined 32-7 with a 2.88 ERA his first two years of D ball. Prior to the ’51 season he was selected by the Dodgers in the minor league draft and that season went 23-9 in A ball with a 2.78 ERA followed up by a 14-11/2.83 season in Double A in ’52. He was then selected by Pittsburgh in the Rule 5 draft which meant an automatic promotion to the top in ’53 where he had a tough season as a spot guy, going 6-8 with a 6.58 ERA. The next year it was back to Triple A, but not before he learned a new pitch in spring training from ex-Yankee reliever Joe Page, a forkball. While it wasn’t crazy successful for him right away – he went 12-11 with a high ERA in ’54 and then 5-7 /3.58 as a spot guy in ’55 back in Pittsburgh – it worked wonders when he moved into a relief role later that second season. That year he had five saves and then in ’56 went 12-13/3.52 with six saves while leading the NL with his 68 games. In ’57 he went 4-6/3.07 with ten saves while missing some games after being hit in the face by a comebacker. He set an NL record that year by pitching in nine straight games. In ’58 he was 5-2/2.89 with an NL-leading 20 saves before raising his profile huge in ’59 by going 18-1 with his record winning percentage with a 2.70 ERA and ten saves. His last two seasons he won a total of 22 consecutive games. In ’60 he helped take the Pirates to the Series with his 10-8/2.90/24 save season while again leading the NL in games. He saved three as well against the Yankees in the Series. In ’61 he again led the NL with 17 saves and in ’62 he turned that trick again with 28 while going 8-7 with a personal best 1.88 ERA. He would remain with the Pirates through most of the ’68 season, generally continuing to pitch well, though he was injured for part of ’64 and nearly all of ’66. Over that time he averaged 15 saves a season in his healthy years. Late in ’68 he was sold to Detroit for its stretch drive but missed out on the post-season. Early in the ’69 season he went to the new Expos as a free agent where he went 4-2/3.94/five saves his final year up top. In ’70 he finished things out with California in Triple A – he was 42 – and was done with a record of 104-95 with a 3.48 ERA, six complete games, and 193 saves. In his lone Series he posted a 5.23 ERA in his four games, but got those three saves. Another carpenter, in off-seasons he did cabinetry work and actually also traveled the yodeling circuit (there’s a yodeling circuit?). After playing he became the carpentry foreman at Mayview State Hospital before retiring in the early Nineties. He continues to reside in suburban PA.

Marty O’Toole was born in PA and relocated to Framingham, MA, at a young age. He grew up in a family of pitchers, two brothers having played extensive minor league ball. Marty began his pro career in ’07 when he was 18 and won 20 games for the local Brockton team, a B-level squad. According to his SABR bio, baseball-reference and other sites incorrectly have credited his brother’s stats for ’06 and ’07 to Marty. In ’08 he went 31-11 for the same team which got him purchased by Cincinnati late in the season. After a brief look he went back to Brockton – apparently he pissed off management – and in ’09 won 26 games. He was then purchased by Boston, who optioned him to the A leagues where for two teams Marty went a combined 22-8. In ’11 he was 15-11 by late July with a bunch of double-figure strikeout games and a bidding war began for his services. Eventually that was won by Pittsburgh, which paid $22,500 for Marty’s contract which was abetted by other fees that ultimately made Marty one of the most expensive pitchers of his day.  When he made it to Pittsburgh late that year he threw three straight complete-game wins before finishing his short season there 3-2 with a 2.37 ERA. In ’12 he put up a 15-17 record with a 2.71 ERA while leading the NL with six shutouts and his walk total. But Marty was already having severe arm problems due to his extreme usage in the minors which amounted to over 1,500 innings and 154 complete games in his 163 starts. Officially diagnosed with rheumatism in his throwing shoulder, he only went a combined 8-17 his next two MLB seasons and finished at that level with a record of 27-36 with a 3.21 ERA, 31 complete games, and two saves. In ’15 he returned to the minors where he went 14-15 that year in Double A and then a combined 39-26 the next three years for Omaha, a team in the A-level Western League. He finished with a record in the minors of 164-88. By the time he was pitching in Omaha he’d left his family in the wake of what was considered to be depression after being publicly derided for his physical flameout in Pittsburgh. He worked at a clothing store in Omaha and then managed an independent team there in ’19. Shortly thereafter he relocated to Oregon and then Washington, where by the late Twenties he was running a pool hall. He was a taxi cab dispatcher in the town of Aberdeen when he was found dead apparently after a fall down some stairs in ’49. He was 60.

Technically Bob Veale should have had a card in this set with Boston since he had eleven saves for the Sox in ’73. But he doesn’t so here we are. Bob grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, where in high school he played first when he didn’t pitch, and was a batboy and occasional pitcher for the Black Barons of the Negro Leagues. He had a shot at getting signed by the Kansas City Monarchs but instead opted to go to Benedictine College in Kansas wher he played both hoops and baseball his four years there. Signed by Pittsburgh when he graduated in ’58 he had a tough start that year in C ball. A big guy and a hard thrower, Bob could rack up K’s but also put up big walk totals. He had a much better ’59 season in B ball, going 12-5 with a 3.49 ERA with 187 strikeouts and 126 walks in 147 innings. He then spent the next two years in Triple A, going a combined 24-20 with a 2.98 ERA while posting nearly a strikeout an inning. He began ’62 in Pittsburgh, where he went 2-2 as a spot guy before returning mid-year to Columbus to go 8-5. In ’63 he was back with the Pirates where he again did spot work, going 5-2 with three saves and a crazy good 1.04 ERA in 78 innings. The next year he joined the rotation where in ’64 he had maybe his best year, going 18-12/2.74 while leading the NL in walks and with 250 strikeouts. He would lead the NL in walks four of the next five seasons, though none of those totals was crazy high. In ’65 he had a comparable year with all those K’s and a record of 17-12/2.84. In ’66 he went 16-12 with his final season of over 200 strikeouts and in ’67 16-8 as his ERA elevated a bit and his complete games halved. In ’68 Bob went 13-14 with a 2.05 ERA, which was the lowest ERA posted by someone with a losing record in that many starts since 1914. Bob had two more seasons in the rotation before being made a reliever in ’71, when as a setup guy he went 6-0 with a hefty 6.99 ERA, one of the wiggiest stat combos I think I’ve seen in baseball. After spending a significant part of ’72 in the minors – 4-3 with a 2.82 ERA – while rehabbing from an injury, Bob was sent in September to Boston where he posted two wins and two saves while throwing shutout ball down the stretch. In ’73 he went 2-3/3.47 with those eleven saves and he finished his playing career the next year in Boston with a 120-95 record, 3.07 ERA, 78 complete games, 20 shutouts, and 21 saves. He was an All-Star twice and had a 13.50 ERA in an inning of post-season ball. He coached through at least ’84 for various organizations – not having Google news search is a killer for this stuff – and then did some scouting before retiring back to Birmingham, where he still resides.

Al “Lefty” Leifield was born in Illinois and grew up in St. Louis where he worked and played company ball after having to leave school early when his dad died. In ’02 and ’03 he played local ball and then in ’04 signed with Des Moines, and A team for whom he went 16-17 with a low ERA. In ’05 he improved to 26-9, was signed by Pittsburgh, and was able to go 5-2 with a 2.89 ERA for the Pirates that September. In ’06 he cracked the rotation full-time, going 18-12/1.87 and posting all those shutouts. In ’07 he went 20-16/2.33, and in ’08 15-14/2.10. Al was a control pitcher and he would continue to post excellent ERA’s, going 19-8/2.37 in ’09, 15-13/2.64 in ’10, and 16-16/2.63 in ’11. He lost his only Series start in ’09 though he got a ring and in ’12 he hurt his arm, starting badly before a May trade to the Cubs, for whom he went 7-2 after the trade with a 2.42 ERA. In ’13 his arm problems returned, and instead of going to the minors for rehab he returned home to St. Louis to work in a saloon. He then joined the San Francisco PCL team, going 13-8/2.47 in half a season and then 21-19/2.22 in ’14. He then put in three years of Double A ball, going a combined 39-39 with a 2.62 ERA before returning to MLB action with the Browns in ’18, for whom he did some spot work before the season shut down due to WW I. In ’19 he continued in that role for a 6-4/2.93 season before finishing his MLB stay in a bit of work the next year. Up top Al went 124-97 with a 2.47 ERA, 138 complete games, 32 shutouts, and seven saves. He finished 115-92 in the minors with a 2.40 ERA. He then coached for the Browns, Red Sox, and Detroit before returning to the minors to manage independent ball from ’29 to ’32. He then did some more coaching before returning to St. Louis in ’36 to work for the city’s water department, which he did until retiring in ’62. He passed away in ’70 when he was 87. He, too, has a SABR bio.

Al Mamaux was born and raised in Pittsburgh and after high school attended Duquesne University there from where he was signed by the Pirates in 1913 when he was 19. That year he went 18-16 in D ball before coming up to Pittsburgh for his September debut. The next year he worked through some injuries as a spot guy and went 5-2 with a 1.71 ERA. In ’15 he went 21-8 with a 2.04 ERA. Al was a fastballer pretty strictly and didn’t always have the best control and though in ’16 he went 21-15 with a 2.53 ERA for a sixth-place club, he led the NL in walks and earned runs. Those two stats were a prelude to a horrible ’17 when he went 2-11 with a 5.25 ERA and twice as many walks as strikeouts in only 16 games. Apparently Al liked ice cream a bunch and was a bit of a late night guy and, like Burleigh Grimes above, feuded with his manager. He was sent after the season with Grimes to Brooklyn where he missed nearly the whole ’18 season because he enlisted in the Army for WW I. The next two years he went a combined 22-20/2.67 for the Dodgers as he moved from the rotation to a spot role, putting up four saves that second season, when he also saw his only Series action. The next three years he pitched out of the pen as his ERA ramped up and he finished with the Yankees in ’24 with an overall 76-67 record, 2.90 ERA, 78 complete games, 15 shutouts, and ten saves. In the post-season he put up a 4.50 ERA in three games of relief work. He hit .182 up top and didn’t strike out terribly much. In both ’23 and ’24 Al spent considerable parts of the season in Double A where he went a combined 28-16 with a 3.28 ERA. In ’25 he coached in the minors for the Yankees befre being sold to the independent Newark Bears, a Double A International League team. Again, he coached for the ’26 season before also returning to the mound in ‘27. The next three seasons he went 25-10/2.60, 15-8/3.33, and 20-13/2.91 before he scaled down his appearances the next couple years. He would finish 131-74 in the minors and in ’30 took over managing the team. He was very popular and helped improve the team significantly, winning the league title in ’32 and ’33. He left after losing the playoffs that second year and after a year off managed Albany, a Nats affiliate for two season, but didn’t do nearly as well. He would finish with a 495-480 managing record. In ’37 he became the head coach at Seton Hall where he went a combined 69-19 through ’42. That last year his Pirates were undefeated and were led by a first baseman named Chuck Connors, who would go on to be The Rifleman on TV. He left the school to do wartime work duty the next few years and by ’45 had relocated to California where for years he worked as a security guard at an amusement park in Santa Monica. He was admitted to the halls of fame of the International League, Seton Hall, and Duquesne, where he finished up his degree in the off-seasons. For years he also did a singing bit on the vaudeville circuit. He was still working as a guard when he passed away in ’63 at age 66.

Charles “Babe” Adams was born and raised in Indiana farm country until he was 16 when, according to his SABR bio, he went to live on another farm in Missouri, where he played ball in high school. He remained there after graduating, working the farm, and for the next six years pitching for the town team. In ’04, when he was 22, he picked up a curve from an opponent which would become his money pitch in pro ball. The next year he signed with a C team in Parsons, Kansas, and went 21-9 with a 2.05 ERA, which led to a purchase by the Cards. He began ’06 on the St. Louis roster, didn’t pitch too well in his only game, and in May was returned to the minors, where he finished out the year 9-10/3.01 in A ball. The next two years at that level he went 24-13/1.99 and 22-12/2.08 with excellent control, which would be his hallmark. Late that first year he got purchased by Pittsburgh for whom he put in some more lousy innings. In ’09 he made the roster in the spring and while doing spot work went 12-3 with an absurd 1.11 ERA before getting three starts in that year’s Series and winning all of them. The next year he moved into the rotation from where he would throw excellent ball the next six seasons, going a combined 99-69 with a 2.46 ERA and only 300 walks in 1,550 innings. He was hurt in ’12 and missed half the season and during that time twice led the NL in WHIP. In ’16 a shoulder injury led to a poor record and rather than return to the minors for rehab he went home. But in ’17 his arm felt better and he did report to an A team to go 20-13/1.75. In ’18 he moved up to Double A, went 14-3/1.67 in half a season, and returned to Pittsburgh that July to go 1-1/1.19 the rest of the way out of the pen. He returned to the rotation in ’19 fully-healed, and the next three seasons went a combined 48-28 with a 2.20 ERA, all three years leading the NL in WHIP, and in ’20 leading the league in shutouts while in ’21 leading it in winning percentage with his 14-5 record. In ’22 he faded a bit to go 8-11 but in ’23 he went 13-7 at age 41. He remained with the Pirates through ’26 doing spot and pen work and in ’25 returned to the Series, 16 years after his last visit (I wonder if that’s a record). Babe finished with a record of 194-140 with a 2.76 ERA, 206 complete games, 44 shutouts, 15 saves, and just 430 walks in almost 3,000 innings. In the post-season he was 3-0 with a 1.29 ERA, three complete games, and a shutout. In ’27 Babe pitched for some local C clubs, going a combined 6-1, before he retired to be a full-time farmer. Problems during the Depression also had him pick up gigs as a sports reporter for various papers. In ’58 he relocated to Maryland to be near a daughter and he passed away there in ’68 at age 86.

Ray Kremer was born and raised in Oakland, where he played high school ball and then led his semi-pro team to an area title in 1913, when he was 20. In ’14 he got signed to a Double A team but had a messy season so in ’15 he moved down to B ball where he was 7-5/3.14 before the league threatened to fold and he went home. Prior to the ’16 season he was signed by the Giants but he’d developed rheumatism in his shoulder and again wasn’t very effective and so was cut. In ’17 he signed with the Oakland Oaks, a PCL team for whom he pitched the next seven seasons. His shoulder issues flared up from time to time and his team wasn’t so hot, so though he had a decent ERA he was a combined 42-64 his first four seasons. In ’21 he went 16-14 for his first winning season in six years and he followed that up with 20 wins in ’22 and 25 wins in ’23, finally shaking the “warm weather” pitcher tag and being signed by the Pirates at the end of that season. In ’24 he joined the Pittsburgh rotation as a 31-year old rookie, leading the NL with 41 games and four shutouts as he went 18-10 with a 3.19 ERA. In ’25 he went 17-8/3.69 before getting three starts in the Series and winning two of them. In both ’26 and ’27 he led the NL in ERA with marks of 2.61 and 2.47 while going 20-6 and 19-8 respectively. He won 15 in ’28 and 18 in ’29 before posting the rather amazing record of 20-12 – his wins led the NL – with a 5.02 ERA in ’30 as batters collected all those hits to put up an average of .322 against him. He won eleven in ’31 before slowing down considerably the next couple seasons, finishing his MLB career in ’33 when he was 40. Lifetime at that level he went 143-85 with a 3.76 ERA, 134 complete games, 14 shutouts, and ten saves. In the post-season he was 2-2 in his four starts with a 3.12 ERA and two complete games. In ’33 and ’34 Ray pitched a bit back in Oakland and finished his minor league career with an additional 115 wins. He then became a mailman for over 20 years before retiring upstate a bit in the late Fifties. He passed away from a heart ailment in ’65 when he was 71. He is yet another Pirate with a SABR bio.

Wilbur Cooper was born in West Virginia and as a young boy relocated to Ohio where he threw local ball before signing in 1911 with a D team from Marion. After going 17-11 for them late that summer he was sold to an A team in Columbus for whom he finished 3-3. In ’12 he went 16-9 with a 2.76 ERA for Columbus, now a Double A team, before a late August trade to Pittsburgh, where he finished 3-0 with a 1.66 ERA. The next year Wilbur worked out of the pen with some spot starts, going 5-3/3.29 with a save. In ’14 he moved into the rotation where he would remain the next eleven seasons as an excellent control guy. That year he went 16-15/2.13 and then fell a bit in ’15 to 5-16/3.30. Wilbur had lousy timing and managed to spend his whole career in Pittsburgh between two Series years. In ’16 he went 12-11 despite that great ERA but the next year he started posting big wins, going 17-11/2.36. From ’18 to ’24 he averaged 21 wins a season with well-above league average ERA’s. He led the NL in ’21 with 22 wins after setting a personal high the prior year with his 24-15 season. He won 20 in ’24 before being part of a big trade to Chicago that depressed the crap out of him. In ’25 he went only 12-14 before finishing his MLB career the next season in Chicago and Detroit. Wilbur went 216-178 for his career with a 2.89 ERA, 279 complete games, 35 shutouts, and 14 saves. He was a pretty good hitter, putting up a .239 average with 106 RBI’s and only 140 K’s during his career. He returned to the minors in ’26, moving to Oakland in the PCL in ’27 and winning 25 games there the next two years. He won 17 in A ball in ’29 before finishing his playing career in ’30 at that level with an 83-76 record. He then moved into real estate in the Pittsburgh area full-time outside of three seasons managing D teams from ’35 to ’37. He relocated to California in ’47 where he continued in real estate while also being involved heavily in local amateur baseball. Another pitcher with a SABR bio, he passed away in ’73 when he was 81.

Even splitting these up, that was a ton of bios. Time to see how Topps does representing this team. Offensively Milt May has a non-Traded traded card with Houston and Vic Davalillo has a regular one with Oakland with whom he finished the ’73 season. That leaves only the newly retired Gene Alley as the only guy on the team with more than four at bats without a card. Gene hit .203 with 25 runs in his 158 at bats in his final season. On the pitching side we miss: Bruce Kison, who got shut out after having a card in ’72 and ’73 and went 3-0 with a 3.09 ERA in his seven starts; John Morlan, who went 2-2/3.95 in ten games and would get his only card in the ’75 set; John Lamb, 0-1/6.07 with two saves in 20 games in his final MLB season, who was nearly killed by a line drive in ’71 and was the brother-in-law of Steve Blass; Jim McKee, 0-1/5.67 in 15 games in another last call; Tom Dettore, 0-1/5.96 in twelve games his rookie year, who would have cards with the Cubs in ’75 and ’76 and then a long run as a Pirates minor league pitching coach; and Chris Zachary, 0-1/3.00 with a save in six games in another final season, a one-time Houston phenom who made his debut in ’63. That adds up to eleven decisions and three saves missing. Overall, that combo is pretty good.

No Watergate news this time, just the hook-up:

1. Dave Cash was on the ’73 Pirates;

2. Cash and Ollie Brown ’74 to ’76 Phillies.